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Mobility Change around Neighborhood Parks and Green Spaces before and after the Outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic (COVID-19 발생 전·후 생활권 공원녹지 모빌리티 변화 분석)

  • Choi, Ga yoon;Kim, Yong gook;Kwon, Oh kyu;Yoo, Ye seul
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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    • v.51 no.4
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    • pp.101-118
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    • 2023
  • During the COVID-19 pandemic, the utilization rate of neighborhood parks and green spaces increased significantly, and the outbreak served as an opportunity to highlight the values and functions of neighborhood parks and green spaces for urban residents. This study aims to empirically analyze how citizens' movement and the use of neighborhood parks and green spaces changed before and after COVID-19 and examine the social and spatial characteristics that affected these changes. As a research method, first, people's mobility around neighborhood parks and green spaces before and after the COVID-19 pandemic were compared using signal data from telecommunication carriers. Through the analysis of changes in residence time and movement volume, the movement characteristics of citizens after COVID-19 and changes in walking-based park visits were examined. Second, the factors affecting the mobility change in neighborhood parks and green spaces were analyzed. The social and spatial characteristics that affect citizens' visits to neighborhood parks and green spaces before and after COVID-19 were examined through correlation and multiple regression analysis. Subsequently, through cluster analysis, the types of living areas for the post-COVID era were classified from the perspective of the supply and management of neighborhood parks and green spaces services, and directions for improving neighborhood parks and green spaces by type were presented. Major research findings are as follows: First, since the outbreak of COVID-19, activities within 500m of the residence have increased. The amount of stay and walking movement increased in both 2020 and 2021, which means that the need to review the quantitative standards and attractions of neighborhood parks and green spaces has increased considering the changed scope of the walking and living area. Second, the overall number of visits to neighborhood parks and green spaces by walking has increased since the outbreak of COVID-19. The number of visits to neighborhood parks and green spaces centered on the house and the workplace increased significantly. The park green policy in the post-COVID era should be promoted by discovering underprivileged areas, focusing on areas where residential, commercial, and business facilities are concentrated, and improving neighborhood parks and green services in quantitative and qualitative terms. Third, it was found that the higher the level of park green service, the higher the amount of walking movement. It is necessary to use indicators that contribute to improving citizens' actual park green services, such as walking accessibility, rather than looking at the criteria for securing green areas. Fourth, as a result of cluster analysis, five types of neighborhood parks and green spaces were derived in response to the post-COVID era. This suggests that it is necessary to consider the socioeconomic status and characteristics of living areas and the level of park green services required in future park green policies. This study has academic and policy significance in that it has laid the basis for establishing neighborhood parks and green spaces policy in response to the post-COVID era by using various analysis methodologies such as carrier signal data analysis, GIS analysis, and statistical analysis.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BASAL BONE AND TEETH IN NORMAL OCCLUSION AND ANGLE'S CLASS I MALOCCLUSION (정상교합자와 I급 부정교합자에서 치아와 기저골의 관계에 대한 비교 분석)

  • MOON, Hye-Jeong;KYUNG, Hee-Moon;KWON, Oh-Won;KIM, Jung-Min
    • The korean journal of orthodontics
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    • v.22 no.2 s.37
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    • pp.413-426
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    • 1992
  • In order to analyze the relationship between teeth and basal bone for the maintainance of the good occlusion, the mesiodistal width of teeth, the basal arch width and the basal arch length were measured on the study model of the normal occlusion group and Angle's class I malocclusion group (non-extraction group, extraction group) The Maximum tooth material, the percentage of basal arch width to maximum tooth material, the percentage of basal arch length to maximum tooth material and the percentage of basal arch width plus basal arch length to maximum tooth material were caculated, and then statistical analysis was done. From thie study, the obtained results were as follows; 1. In maxilla, the percentage of basal arch width to maximum tooth material was $46.9{\pm}2.6\%$ in normal occlusion group, $49.4{\pm}3.9\%$ in non-extraction group, and $42.5{\pm}3.3\%$ in extraction group. In mandible, that was $46.6{\pm}2.4\%$ in normal occlusion group, $47.5{\pm}4.0\%$ in non-extraction group, and $42.6{\pm}2.6\%$ in extraction group. 2. In maxilla, the percentage of basal arch length to maximum tooth material was $33.4{\pm}1.9\%$ in normal occlusion group, $33.9{\pm}1.8\%$ in non-extraction group, and $28.7{\pm}2.5\%$ in extraction group. In mandible, that was $34.4{\pm}4.3\%$ in normal occlusion group, $36.5{\pm}1.9\%$ in non-extraction group, and $31.5{\pm}2.5\%$ in extraction group. 3. In maxilla, the percentage of basal arch width plus basal arch length to maximum tooth material was $80.3{\pm}3.4\%$ in normal occlusion group, $83.3{\pm}4.8\%$ in non-extraction group, and $71.2{\pm}4.3\%$ in extraction group. In mandible, that was $81.0{\pm}5.2\%$ in normal occlusion group, $84.0{\pm}5.4\%$ in non-extraction group, and $74.1{\pm}4.1\%$ in extraction group. 4. In Maxilla, the $95\%$ confidence interval of the percentage of basal arch width to maximum tooth material was $46.3-47.5\%$ in normal occlusion group, $48.1-50.7\%$ in non-extraction group, and $41.7-47.2\%$ in extraction group. In mandible, that was $46.1-47.2\%$ in normal occlusion group, $46.1-48.8\%$ in non-extraction group, and $42.0-43.3\%$ in extraction group. 5. In maxilla, the $95\%$ confidence interval of the percentage of basal arch length to maximum tooth material was $32.9-33.9\%$ in normal occlusion group, $33.3-34.5\%$ in non-extraction group, and $28.1-29.2\%$ in extraction group. In mandible, that was $33.4-3.4\%$ in noraml occlusion group, $35.8-37.2\%$ in non-extraction group, and $30.9-33.1\%$ in extraction group. 6. In maxilla, the $95\%$ confidence interval of thepercentage of basel arch width plus basal arch length to maximum tooth material was $79.5-81.0\%$ in normal occlusion group, $81.6-84.9\%$ in non-extraction group, and $70.1-72.2\%$ in extraction group. In mandible, that was $79.8-82.2\%$ in normal occlusion group, $82.1-85.5\%$ in non-extraction group, and $73.1-75.1\%$ in extraction group. 7. There was correlation between maxilla and mandible in the maximum tooth material, the basal arch width, the basal arch length, the percentage of basal arch width to maximum tooth material, the percentage of basal arch length to maximum tooth material and the percentage of basal arch width plus basal arch length to maximum tooth material, but not in the basal arch length of male of the extraction group. * A thesis submitted to the Council of the Graduate School of Kyungpook national University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Dental Science in December, 1991.

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Information Privacy Concern in Context-Aware Personalized Services: Results of a Delphi Study

  • Lee, Yon-Nim;Kwon, Oh-Byung
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.20 no.2
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    • pp.63-86
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    • 2010
  • Personalized services directly and indirectly acquire personal data, in part, to provide customers with higher-value services that are specifically context-relevant (such as place and time). Information technologies continue to mature and develop, providing greatly improved performance. Sensory networks and intelligent software can now obtain context data, and that is the cornerstone for providing personalized, context-specific services. Yet, the danger of overflowing personal information is increasing because the data retrieved by the sensors usually contains privacy information. Various technical characteristics of context-aware applications have more troubling implications for information privacy. In parallel with increasing use of context for service personalization, information privacy concerns have also increased such as an unrestricted availability of context information. Those privacy concerns are consistently regarded as a critical issue facing context-aware personalized service success. The entire field of information privacy is growing as an important area of research, with many new definitions and terminologies, because of a need for a better understanding of information privacy concepts. Especially, it requires that the factors of information privacy should be revised according to the characteristics of new technologies. However, previous information privacy factors of context-aware applications have at least two shortcomings. First, there has been little overview of the technology characteristics of context-aware computing. Existing studies have only focused on a small subset of the technical characteristics of context-aware computing. Therefore, there has not been a mutually exclusive set of factors that uniquely and completely describe information privacy on context-aware applications. Second, user survey has been widely used to identify factors of information privacy in most studies despite the limitation of users' knowledge and experiences about context-aware computing technology. To date, since context-aware services have not been widely deployed on a commercial scale yet, only very few people have prior experiences with context-aware personalized services. It is difficult to build users' knowledge about context-aware technology even by increasing their understanding in various ways: scenarios, pictures, flash animation, etc. Nevertheless, conducting a survey, assuming that the participants have sufficient experience or understanding about the technologies shown in the survey, may not be absolutely valid. Moreover, some surveys are based solely on simplifying and hence unrealistic assumptions (e.g., they only consider location information as a context data). A better understanding of information privacy concern in context-aware personalized services is highly needed. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to identify a generic set of factors for elemental information privacy concern in context-aware personalized services and to develop a rank-order list of information privacy concern factors. We consider overall technology characteristics to establish a mutually exclusive set of factors. A Delphi survey, a rigorous data collection method, was deployed to obtain a reliable opinion from the experts and to produce a rank-order list. It, therefore, lends itself well to obtaining a set of universal factors of information privacy concern and its priority. An international panel of researchers and practitioners who have the expertise in privacy and context-aware system fields were involved in our research. Delphi rounds formatting will faithfully follow the procedure for the Delphi study proposed by Okoli and Pawlowski. This will involve three general rounds: (1) brainstorming for important factors; (2) narrowing down the original list to the most important ones; and (3) ranking the list of important factors. For this round only, experts were treated as individuals, not panels. Adapted from Okoli and Pawlowski, we outlined the process of administrating the study. We performed three rounds. In the first and second rounds of the Delphi questionnaire, we gathered a set of exclusive factors for information privacy concern in context-aware personalized services. The respondents were asked to provide at least five main factors for the most appropriate understanding of the information privacy concern in the first round. To do so, some of the main factors found in the literature were presented to the participants. The second round of the questionnaire discussed the main factor provided in the first round, fleshed out with relevant sub-factors. Respondents were then requested to evaluate each sub factor's suitability against the corresponding main factors to determine the final sub-factors from the candidate factors. The sub-factors were found from the literature survey. Final factors selected by over 50% of experts. In the third round, a list of factors with corresponding questions was provided, and the respondents were requested to assess the importance of each main factor and its corresponding sub factors. Finally, we calculated the mean rank of each item to make a final result. While analyzing the data, we focused on group consensus rather than individual insistence. To do so, a concordance analysis, which measures the consistency of the experts' responses over successive rounds of the Delphi, was adopted during the survey process. As a result, experts reported that context data collection and high identifiable level of identical data are the most important factor in the main factors and sub factors, respectively. Additional important sub-factors included diverse types of context data collected, tracking and recording functionalities, and embedded and disappeared sensor devices. The average score of each factor is very useful for future context-aware personalized service development in the view of the information privacy. The final factors have the following differences comparing to those proposed in other studies. First, the concern factors differ from existing studies, which are based on privacy issues that may occur during the lifecycle of acquired user information. However, our study helped to clarify these sometimes vague issues by determining which privacy concern issues are viable based on specific technical characteristics in context-aware personalized services. Since a context-aware service differs in its technical characteristics compared to other services, we selected specific characteristics that had a higher potential to increase user's privacy concerns. Secondly, this study considered privacy issues in terms of service delivery and display that were almost overlooked in existing studies by introducing IPOS as the factor division. Lastly, in each factor, it correlated the level of importance with professionals' opinions as to what extent users have privacy concerns. The reason that it did not select the traditional method questionnaire at that time is that context-aware personalized service considered the absolute lack in understanding and experience of users with new technology. For understanding users' privacy concerns, professionals in the Delphi questionnaire process selected context data collection, tracking and recording, and sensory network as the most important factors among technological characteristics of context-aware personalized services. In the creation of a context-aware personalized services, this study demonstrates the importance and relevance of determining an optimal methodology, and which technologies and in what sequence are needed, to acquire what types of users' context information. Most studies focus on which services and systems should be provided and developed by utilizing context information on the supposition, along with the development of context-aware technology. However, the results in this study show that, in terms of users' privacy, it is necessary to pay greater attention to the activities that acquire context information. To inspect the results in the evaluation of sub factor, additional studies would be necessary for approaches on reducing users' privacy concerns toward technological characteristics such as highly identifiable level of identical data, diverse types of context data collected, tracking and recording functionality, embedded and disappearing sensor devices. The factor ranked the next highest level of importance after input is a context-aware service delivery that is related to output. The results show that delivery and display showing services to users in a context-aware personalized services toward the anywhere-anytime-any device concept have been regarded as even more important than in previous computing environment. Considering the concern factors to develop context aware personalized services will help to increase service success rate and hopefully user acceptance for those services. Our future work will be to adopt these factors for qualifying context aware service development projects such as u-city development projects in terms of service quality and hence user acceptance.

The Role of Tumor Necrosis Factor-$\alpha$ and Interleukin-$1{\beta}$ as Predictable Markers for Development of Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome in Septic Syndrome (패혈증 증후군환자에서 성인성 호흡곤란 증후군 발생의 예측 지표서의 혈중 Tumor Necrosis Factor-$\alpha$와 Interleukin-$1{\beta}$에 관한 연구)

  • Koh, Youn-Suck;Jang, Yun-Hae;Kim, Woo-Sung;Lee, Jae-Dam;Oh, Soon-Hwan;Kim, Won-Dong
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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    • v.41 no.5
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    • pp.452-461
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    • 1994
  • Background: Tumor necrosis factor(TNF)-$\alpha$ and Interleukin(lL)-$1{\beta}$ are thought to play a major role in the pathogenesis of the septic syndrome, which is frequently associated with adult respiratory distress syndrome(ARDS). In spite of many reports for the role of TNF-$\alpha$ in the pathogenesis of ARDS, including human studies, it has been reported that TNF-$\alpha$ is not sensitive and specific marker for impending ARDS. But there is a possibility that the results were affected by the diversity of pathogenetic mechanisms leading to the ARDS because of various underlying disorders of the study group in the previous reports. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the roles of TNF-$\alpha$ and IL-$1{\beta}$ as a predictable marker for development of ARDS in the patients with septic syndrome, in which the pathogenesis is believed to be mainly cytokine-mediated. Methods: Thirty-six patients of the septic syndrome hospitalized in the intensive care units of the Asan Medical Center were studied. Sixteens suffered from ARDS, whereas the remaining 20 were at the risk of developing ARDS(acute hypoxemic respiratory failure, AHRF). In all patients venous blood samples were collected in heparin-coated tubes at the time of enrollment, at 24 and 72 h thereafter. TNF-$\alpha$ and IL-$1{\beta}$ was measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). All data are expressed as median with interquartile range. Results: 1) Plama TNF-$\alpha$ levels: Plasma TNF-$\beta$ levels were less than 10pg/mL, which is lowest detection value of the kit used in this study within the range of the $mean{\pm}2SD$, in all of the normal controls, 8 of 16 subjects of ARDS and in 8 in 20 subjects of AHRF. Plasma TNF-$\alpha$ levels from patients with ARDS were 10.26pg/mL(median; <10-16.99pg/mL, interquartile range) and not different from those of patients at AHRF(10.82, <10-20.38pg/mL). There was also no significant difference between pre-ARDS(<10, <10-15.32pg/mL) and ARDS(<10, <10-10.22pg/mL). TNF-$\alpha$ levels were significantly greater in the patients with shock than the patients without shock(12.53pg/mL vs. <10pg/mL) (p<0.01). There was no statistical significance between survivors(<10, <10-12.92pg/mL) and nonsurvivors(11.80, <10-20.8pg/mL) (P=0.28) in the plasma TNF-$\alpha$ levels. 2) Plasma IL-$1{\beta}$ levels: Plasma IL-$1{\beta}$ levels were less than 0.3ng/mL, which is the lowest detection value of the kit used in this study, in one of each patients group. There was no significant difference in IL-$1{\beta}$ levels of the ARDS(2.22, 1.37-8.01ng/mL) and of the AHRF(2.13, 0.83-5.29ng/mL). There was also no significant difference between pre-ARDS(2.53, <0.3-8.34ngfmL) and ARDS(5.35, 0.66-11.51ng/mL), and between patients with septic shock and patients without shock (2.51, 1.28-8.34 vs 1.46, 0.15-2.13ng/mL). Plasma IL-$1{\beta}$ levels were significantly different between survivors(1.37, 0.4-2.36ng/mL) and nonsurvivors(2.84, 1.46-8.34ng/mL). Conclusion: Plasma TNF-$\alpha$ and IL-$1{\beta}$ level are not a predictable marker for development of ARDS. But TNF-$\alpha$ is a marker for shock in septic syndrome. These result could not exclude a possibility of pathophysiologic roles of TNF-$\alpha$ and IL-$1{\beta}$ in acute lung injury because these cytokine could be locally produced and exert its effects within the lungs.

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Studies on the Nitrogenous Utilization and Basal Metabolism of Korean Native Goat (한국(韓國) 재래산양(在來山羊)의 질소대사(窒素代謝) 및 기초대사량(基礎代謝量)에 관(關)한 연구(硏究))

  • Oh, Hong Rock
    • Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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    • v.9 no.2
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    • pp.546-555
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    • 1982
  • To evaluate the digestibility and absorbability of proteins, and the rates of energy and nitrogen(N) metabolism of the Korean native goats, studies were carried out with open type respiration apparatus based on the nitrogen-carbon method. The results on the nitrogen retention and the metabolic rate of energy, which was obtained with one male (10-month-old) and one female (24-month-old) goats, both weighing ${\simeq}20kg$, are summarized as follows. 1. When the goats were fed ad libitum the medium quality orchard grass hay, they consumed hay about 0.66 to 0.92% of body weight per day. The hay intake was remained the same even when high quality hay was provided. This amount of hay intake was relatively lower than that of dairy goat and sheep. It was believed to be partly due to the change in feeding enviroment. When fed with hay and soybean meal together, the goats ate hay about 1.06% and soybean meal about 0.60% of body weight, corresponding to 1.66% of body weight as fed basis. 2. The $CO_2$ gas produced from the goat in the open type respiration chamber and absorbed with KOH solution was estimated to be 99~117g/day. The difference in feed intake did not influence the $CO_2$ production; however, these seems to be a linea relationship between body weight and $CO_2$ production. 3. When fed orchard grass hay only, the goats showed protein digestibility of 24~41%. The protein digestibility incresed to 58.2% when fed hay and soybean meal together. A negative nitrogen balance(-0.16g N/day) was observed with goats fed 11.53g N originated from 212g hay and 150g soybean meal. Converting that nitrogen ingested to a crude protein, the amount of crude protein intake by the goats per day was 77.9g compared to 40~45g N known to be required in a day by goat weighing 20kg, indicating that the extra protein ingested was metabolized to provide energy. 4. When the male and female goats comsumed 624 kcal gross energy and 824 kcal gross energy by consuming 158g and 213g of hay, respectively, the digestible energy intake was calculated to be 260kcal for the male and 199kcal for the female goat. The daily heat production of male and female goats were 338kcal and 334kcal, respectively, when fed hay only. However, the female goat fed 212g hay and 150g soybean meal produced about 591kcal per day. Consequently, the energy requirment of the Korean native goats weighing ${\simeq}20kg$ was concluded to be $${\geq_-}$$600kcal net energy per day. 5. The fasting heat product ion of a male goat weighing 27.7kg was 412kcal per day when fasted for 2~3 days. When fasted for 3~4 days, the value decresed to 240kcal. The enviromental temperatures during the expreimental period were ranged from 19 to $34.5^{\circ}C$. The goats seemed to be panting when the chamber temperature rose to $32^{\circ}C$ or above. 6. When fed low levels of dietary protein, serum protein levels of the goats were decresed slightly ($${\leq_-}$$10%); however, urea content in the serum was observed to decrese to a great extent (3X).

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The Effects of Proinflammatory Cytokines and TGF-beta, on The Fibroblast Proliferation (Proinflammatory Cytokines과 TGF-beta가 섬유모세포의 증식에 미치는 영향)

  • Kim, Chul;Park, Choon-Sik;Kim, Mi-Ho;Chang, Hun-Soo;Chung, Il-Yup;Ki, Shin-Young;Uh, Soo-Taek;Moon, Seung-Hyuk;Kim, Yong-Hoon;Lee, Hi-Bal
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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    • v.45 no.4
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    • pp.861-869
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    • 1998
  • Backgrounds: The injury of a tissue results in the infalmmation, and the imflammed tissue is replaced by the normal parenchymal cells during the process of repair. But, constitutional or repetitive damage of a tissue causes the deposition of collagen resulting in the loss of its function. These lesions are found in the lung of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, complicated fibrosis after diffuse alveolar damage (DAD) and inorganic dust-induced lung fibrosis. The tissue from lungs of patients undergoing episodes of active and/or end-stage pulmonary fibrosis shows the accumulation of inflammatory cells, such as mononuclear cells, neutrophils, mast cells and eosinophils, and fibroblast hyperplasia. In this regard, it appears that the inflammation triggers fibroblast activation and proliferation with enhanced matrix synthesis, stimulated by inflammatory mediators such as interleukin-1 (IL-1) and/or tumor necrosis factor (TNF). It has been well known that TGF-$\beta$ enhance the proliferation of fibroblasts and the production of collagen and fibronectin, and inhibit the degradation of collagen. In this regard, It is likely that TGF-$\beta$ undergoes important roles in the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis. Nevertheless, this single cytokine is not the sole regulator of the pulmonary fibrotic response. It is likely that the balance of many cytokines including TGF-$\beta$, IL-1, IL-6 and TNF-$\alpha$ regulates the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis. In this study, we investigate the interaction of TGF-$\beta$, IL-1$\beta$, IL-6 and TNF-$\alpha$ and their effect on the proliferation of fibroblasts. Methods: We used a human fibroblast cell line, MRC-5 (ATCC). The culture of MRC-5 was confirmed by immunofluorecent staining. First, we determined the concentration of serum in cuture medium, in which the proliferation of MRC-5 is supressed but the survival of MRC-5 is retained. Second, we measured optical density after staining the cytokine-stimulated cells with 0.5% naphthol blue black in order to detect the effect of cytokines on the proliferation of MRC-5. Result: In the medium containing 0.5% fetal calf serum, the proliferation of MRC-5 increased by 50%, and it was maintained for 6 days. IL-1$\beta$, TNF-$\alpha$ and IL-6 induced the proliferation of MRC-5 by 45%, 160% and 120%, respectively. IL-1$\beta$ and TNF-$\alpha$ enhanced TGF-$\beta$-induced proliferation of MRC-5 by 64% and 159%, but IL-6 did not affect the TGF-$\beta$-induced proliferation. And lNF-$\alpha$-induced proliferation of MRC-5 was reduced by IL-1$\beta$ in 50%. TGF-$\beta$, TNF-$\alpha$ and both induced the proliferation of MRC-5 to 89%, 135% and 222%, respectively. Conclusions: TNF-$\alpha$, TGF-$\beta$ and IL-1$\beta$, in the order of the effectiveness, showed the induction of MRC-5 proliferation of MRC-5. TNF-$\alpha$ and IL-1$\beta$ enhance the TGF-$\beta$-induced proliferation of MRC-5, but IL-6 did not have any effect TNF-$\alpha$-induced proliferation of MRC-5 is diminished by IL-1, and TNF-$\alpha$ and TGF-$\beta$ showed a additive effect.

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Time Course Change of Phagocytes and Proinflammatory Activities in BALF in Endotoxin-induced Acute Lung Injury (시간별 내독소 정맥주입으로 유발된 급성폐손상의 변화양상에 대한 고찰)

  • Moon, Seung-Hyug;Oh, Je-Ho;Park, Sung-Woo;NamGung, Eun-Kyung;Ki, Shin-Young;Im, Gun-Il;Jung, Sung-Whan;Kim, Hyeon-Tae;Uh, Soo-Tack;Kim, Yong-Hoon;Park, Choon-Sik;Jin, Byeng-Weon
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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    • v.44 no.2
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    • pp.360-378
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    • 1997
  • Background : Severe acute lung injury(ALI), also known as the adult respiratory distress syndrome(ARDS), is a heterogenous nature of dynamic and explosive clinical synrome that exacts a mortality of approximately 50%. Endotoxin(ETX) is an abundant component of the outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria capable of inducing severe lung injury in gram-negative sepsis and gram-negative bacterial pneumonia, which are among the most common predisposing causes of ARDS. The influx of PMNs into airway tissue is a pathological hallmark of LPS-induced lung injury. And there is a substantial evidence suggesting that cytokines are important mediators of lung injury in gram-negative sepsis. However, the kinetics of phagocytes and cytokines by an exact time sequence and their respective pathogenic importance remain to be elucidated. This study was performed to investigate the role of phagocytes and proinflammatory cytokines in ETX-induced ALI through a time course of changes in the concentration of protein, $TNF{\alpha}$ and IL-6, and counts of total and its differential cells in BALF. The consecutive histologic findings were also evaluated. Method : The experimental animals, healthy male Sprague-Dawley, weighted $200{\pm}50g$, were divided into control- and ALI- group. ALI was induced by an intravenous administration of ETX, 5mg/kg. Above mentioned all parameters were examined at 0(control), 3, 6, 24, 72 h after administration of ETX. $TNF{\alpha}$ and IL-6 cone. in BALF were measured by a bioassay. Results : The protein concentration and total leukocyte count(TC) in BALF was significantly increased at 3h compared to controls(p < 0.05). The protein conc. was significantly elavated during observation period, but TC was significantly decreased at 72h(p < 0.05 vs. 24h). There was a close relationship between TC and protein cone. in BALF(r = 0.65, p < 0.001). The PMN and monocyte count was well correlated with TC in BALF, and the correlation of PMN(r = 0.97, p < 0.001) appeared to be more meaningful than that of monocyte(r = 0.61, p < 0.001). There was also a significant correlation between protein cone. and PMN or monocyte count in BALF(PMN vs. monocyte : r = 0.55, p < 0.005 vs. r = 0.64, p < 0.001). The count of monocyte was significantly elavated during observation period though a meaningful reduction of PMN count in BALF at 72h, this observation suggested that monocyte may, at least, partipate in the process of lung injury steadly. In this study, there was no relationship between IL-6 and $TNF{\alpha}$ cone., and $TNF{\alpha}$ but not IL-6 was correlated with TC(r = 0.61, p < 0.05) and monocyte(r = 0.67, p < 0.05) in BALF only at 3, 6h after ETX introduced. In particular, the IL-6 cone. increased earlier and rapidly peaked than $TNF{\alpha}$ cone. in BALF. In histologic findings, the cell counts of lung slices were increased from 3 to 72h(p < 0.001 vs. NC). Alveolar wall-thickness was increased from 6 to 24h(p < 0.001 vs. NC). There was a significant correlation between the cell counts of lung slices and alveolar wall-thickness(r= 0.61, p < 0.001). This result suggested that the cellular infiltrations might be followed by the alterations of interstitium, and the edematous change of alveolar wall might be most rapidly recovered to its normal condition in the process of repair. Conclusion : We concluded that although the role of PMN is partly certain in ETX-induced ALI, it is somewhat inadequate to its known major impact on ALL Alveolar macrophage and/or non-immune cells such as pulmonary endothelial or epithelial cells, may be more importantly contributed to the initiation and perpetual progression of ETX-induced ALI. The IL-6 in ETX-induced ALI was independent to $TNF{\alpha}$, measured by a bioassay in BALF. The early rise in IL-6 in BALF implies multiple origins of the IL-6.

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Review of the Korean Indigenous Species Investigation Project (2006-2020) by the National Institute of Biological Resources under the Ministry of Environment, Republic of Korea (한반도 자생생물 조사·발굴 연구사업 고찰(2006~2020))

  • Bae, Yeon Jae;Cho, Kijong;Min, Gi-Sik;Kim, Byung-Jik;Hyun, Jin-Oh;Lee, Jin Hwan;Lee, Hyang Burm;Yoon, Jung-Hoon;Hwang, Jeong Mi;Yum, Jin Hwa
    • Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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    • v.39 no.1
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    • pp.119-135
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    • 2021
  • Korea has stepped up efforts to investigate and catalog its flora and fauna to conserve the biodiversity of the Korean Peninsula and secure biological resources since the ratification of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992 and the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits (ABS) in 2010. Thus, after its establishment in 2007, the National Institute of Biological Resources (NIBR) of the Ministry of Environment of Korea initiated a project called the Korean Indigenous Species Investigation Project to investigate indigenous species on the Korean Peninsula. For 15 years since its beginning in 2006, this project has been carried out in five phases, Phase 1 from 2006-2008, Phase 2 from 2009-2011, Phase 3 from 2012-2014, Phase 4 from 2015-2017, and Phase 5 from 2018-2020. Before this project, in 2006, the number of indigenous species surveyed was 29,916. The figure was cumulatively aggregated at the end of each phase as 33,253 species for Phase 1 (2008), 38,011 species for Phase 2 (2011), 42,756 species for Phase 3 (2014), 49,027 species for Phase 4 (2017), and 54,428 species for Phase 5(2020). The number of indigenous species surveyed grew rapidly, showing an approximately 1.8-fold increase as the project progressed. These statistics showed an annual average of 2,320 newly recorded species during the project period. Among the recorded species, a total of 5,242 new species were reported in scientific publications, a great scientific achievement. During this project period, newly recorded species on the Korean Peninsula were identified using the recent taxonomic classifications as follows: 4,440 insect species (including 988 new species), 4,333 invertebrate species except for insects (including 1,492 new species), 98 vertebrate species (fish) (including nine new species), 309 plant species (including 176 vascular plant species, 133 bryophyte species, and 39 new species), 1,916 algae species (including 178 new species), 1,716 fungi and lichen species(including 309 new species), and 4,812 prokaryotic species (including 2,226 new species). The number of collected biological specimens in each phase was aggregated as follows: 247,226 for Phase 1 (2008), 207,827 for Phase 2 (2011), 287,133 for Phase 3 (2014), 244,920 for Phase 4(2017), and 144,333 for Phase 5(2020). A total of 1,131,439 specimens were obtained with an annual average of 75,429. More specifically, 281,054 insect specimens, 194,667 invertebrate specimens (except for insects), 40,100 fish specimens, 378,251 plant specimens, 140,490 algae specimens, 61,695 fungi specimens, and 35,182 prokaryotic specimens were collected. The cumulative number of researchers, which were nearly all professional taxonomists and graduate students majoring in taxonomy across the country, involved in this project was around 5,000, with an annual average of 395. The number of researchers/assistant researchers or mainly graduate students participating in Phase 1 was 597/268; 522/191 in Phase 2; 939/292 in Phase 3; 575/852 in Phase 4; and 601/1,097 in Phase 5. During this project period, 3,488 papers were published in major scientific journals. Of these, 2,320 papers were published in domestic journals and 1,168 papers were published in Science Citation Index(SCI) journals. During the project period, a total of 83.3 billion won (annual average of 5.5 billion won) or approximately US $75 million (annual average of US $5 million) was invested in investigating indigenous species and collecting specimens. This project was a large-scale research study led by the Korean government. It is considered to be a successful example of Korea's compressed development as it attracted almost all of the taxonomists in Korea and made remarkable achievements with a massive budget in a short time. The results from this project led to the National List of Species of Korea, where all species were organized by taxonomic classification. Information regarding the National List of Species of Korea is available to experts, students, and the general public (https://species.nibr.go.kr/index.do). The information, including descriptions, DNA sequences, habitats, distributions, ecological aspects, images, and multimedia, has been digitized, making contributions to scientific advancement in research fields such as phylogenetics and evolution. The species information also serves as a basis for projects aimed at species distribution and biological monitoring such as climate-sensitive biological indicator species. Moreover, the species information helps bio-industries search for useful biological resources. The most meaningful achievement of this project can be in providing support for nurturing young taxonomists like graduate students. This project has continued for the past 15 years and is still ongoing. Efforts to address issues, including species misidentification and invalid synonyms, still have to be made to enhance taxonomic research. Research needs to be conducted to investigate another 50,000 species out of the estimated 100,000 indigenous species on the Korean Peninsula.

High Resolution HC$_3$N Observations toward the Central Region of Sagittarius B2

  • H.S-Ching;Oh, M.ishi;M.Morimoto
    • Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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    • 1993.10a
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    • pp.17-17
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    • 1993
  • The wall shear stress in the vicinity of end-to end anastomoses under steady flow conditions was measured using a flush-mounted hot-film anemometer(FMHFA) probe. The experimental measurements were in good agreement with numerical results except in flow with low Reynolds numbers. The wall shear stress increased proximal to the anastomosis in flow from the Penrose tubing (simulating an artery) to the PTFE: graft. In flow from the PTFE graft to the Penrose tubing, low wall shear stress was observed distal to the anastomosis. Abnormal distributions of wall shear stress in the vicinity of the anastomosis, resulting from the compliance mismatch between the graft and the host artery, might be an important factor of ANFH formation and the graft failure. The present study suggests a correlation between regions of the low wall shear stress and the development of anastomotic neointimal fibrous hyperplasia(ANPH) in end-to-end anastomoses. 30523 T00401030523 ^x Air pressure decay(APD) rate and ultrafiltration rate(UFR) tests were performed on new and saline rinsed dialyzers as well as those roused in patients several times. C-DAK 4000 (Cordis Dow) and CF IS-11 (Baxter Travenol) reused dialyzers obtained from the dialysis clinic were used in the present study. The new dialyzers exhibited a relatively flat APD, whereas saline rinsed and reused dialyzers showed considerable amount of decay. C-DAH dialyzers had a larger APD(11.70${\pm}$1.32mmHg/min)compared to CF dialyzers(4.32${\pm}$0.55mmHg/min)(p<0.05). However, there was no observable difference in the UFR between the two dialyzers. Neither APD nor UFR showed any significant increase with an increasing number of reuses for up to more than 20reuses. A substantial number of failures observed in APD(larger than 20mmHe/min)on the reused dialyzers(2 out of 40 CP and S out 26 C-DAK) were attributed to the Possible damage on the fibers. The CF 15-11 HFDs which failed APD test did not show changes in the UFR compared to normal dialyzers indicating that APD is a more sensitive test than UFR test to evaluate the integrity of the fibers. 30527 T00401030527 ^x For quantitative measurement of reflected light from a clinical diagnostic strip, a prototype old reflectance photometer was designed. The strip loader and cassette were made to obtain more accurate reflectance parameters. The strip was illuminated at 45˚c through optical fiber and the intensity of reflected light was determined at rectanguLat angle using a photodiode. The kubelka-munk coefficient and reflection optical density were determined ar four different wavelengths(500,550,570 and 610nm) for blood glucose strip. For higher concentration than 300mg/41 about glucose, a saturation state of abforbance was observed at 500,550 and 570nm. The correlation between glucose concentration and parameters was the best at 610nm. 30535 T00401030535 ^x Radiation-induced fibrosarcoma tumors were grown on the flanks of C3H mice. The mice were divided into two groups. One group was injected with Photofrin II, intravenously (2.5mg/kg body weight). The other group received no Photofrin II. Mice from both groups were irradialed for approximately 15 minutes at 100,300, or 500 mW/cm2 with the argon (488nm/514.5 nm), dye(628nm) and gold vapor (pulsed 628 nm) laser light. A photosensitizer behaved as an added absorber. Under our experimental conditions, the presence of Photolfrin II increased surface temperature by at least 40% and the temperature rise due to 300 mW/cm2 irradiation exceeded values for hyperthermia. Light and temperature distributions with depth were estimated by a computer model. The model demonstrated the influence of wavelength on the thermal process and proved to be a valuable tool to investigate internal temperature rise. 30536 T00401030536 ^x We investigated the structural geometry of thirty-eight Korean femurs. The purpose of this study is to identify major geometrical differences between Korean femurs 3nd others that we believe belong to Caucasians so that we would be able to get insights into the femoral component design that fits Asians including Koreans. We utilized computerized tomography (CT) images of femurs extracted from cadavers. The CT images were transformed into bitmap data by using a film scanner, and then analyzed by using a commercially available software called Image v.1.0 and a Macintosh IIci computer.The resulting data were compared with already published data. The major results show that the geometry of the Korean femurs is significantly different from that of Caucasians: (1) the anteversion angle and the canal flare index are greater by the amount of approximately 8˚ and 0.5, respectively, (2) the shape of the isthmus cross section is more round, and (3) the distance between the teaser trochanter and the proximal border of the isthmus is shelter by about 15 mm. The results suggested that the femoral component suitable for Asians should be different from the currently-used components designed and manufactured mostly by European or American companies. 30537 T00401030537 ^x It is well known that nonlinear propagation characteristics of the wave in the tissue may give very useful information for the medical diagnoisis. In this paper, a new method to detect nonlinear propagation characteristics of the internal vibration in the tissue for the low frequency mechanical vibration by using bispectral analysis is proposed. In the method, low frequency vibration of f0( = 100Hz) is applied on the surface of the object, and the waveform of the internal vibration x (t) is measured from Doppler frequency modulation of silmultaneously transmitted probing ultrasonic waves. Then, the bispectra of the signal x (t) at the frequencies (f0, f0) and (f0, 2f0) are calculated to estimate the nonlinear propagation characteristics as their magnitude ratio, w here since bispectrum is free from the gaussian additive noise we can get the value with high S/N. Basic experimental system is constructed by using 3.0 MHz probing ultrasonic waves and the several experiments are carried out for some phantoms. Results show the superiority of the proposed method to the conventional method using power spectrum and also its usefulness for the tissue characterization. 30541 T00401030541 ^x This paper describes the implementation of a computerized radial pulse diagnosis by aids of a clinical expert. On this base, we composed of the radial pulse diagnosis system in korean traditional medicine. The system composed of a radial pulse wave detection system and a radial pulse diagnosis system. With a detection system, we detected Inyoung and Cheongu radial pulse wave and processed it. Then, we have got the characteristic parameters of radial pulse wave and also quantified that according to the method of Inyoung-Cheongu Comparison Radial Pulse Diagnosis. We defined the jugement standard of radial pulse diagnosis system and then we confirmed the possibility for realization of automatic radial pulse diagnosis in korean traditional medicine. 30545 T00401030545 ^x Microspheres are expected to be applied to biomedical areas such as solid-phase immunoassays, drug delivery systems, immunomagnetic cell separation. To synthesize microspheres for biomedical application, "two stage shot growth method" was developed. The uniformity ratio of synthesized microspheres was always smaller than 1.05. And the surface charge density (or the number of ionizable functional groups) of the microspheres synthesized by "two stage shot growth method" was 6~13 times higher than that of the microspheres synthesized by conventional seeded batch copolymerization. As a previous step for biomedical application, adsorption experiments of bovine albumin on microspheres were carried out under various conditions. The maximum adsorbed amount was obtained in the neighborhood of pH 4.5. Isoelectric point of bovine albumin is pH 5.0, so experimental result shows that it shifted to acid area. The adsorption isotherm was obtained, the plateau region was always reached at 2.Og/L (bulk concentration of bovine albumin).The effect of the kind and the amount of surface functional group was also examined. 30575 T00401030575 ^x A medical image workstation was developed using multimedia technique. The system based on PC-486DX was designed to acquire medical images produced by medical imaging instruments and related audio information, that is, doctors' reporting results. Input information was processed and analyzed, then the results were presented in the form of graph and animation. All the informations of the system were hierarchically related with the image as the apex. Processing and analysis algorithms were implemented so that the diagnostic accuracy could be improved. The diagnosed information can be transferred for patient diagnosis through LAN(local area network). 30592 T00401030592 ^x In the conventional infrared imaging system, complex infrared lens systems are usually used for directing collimated narrow infrared beams into the high speed 2-dimensional optic scanner. In this paper, a simple reflective infrared optic system with a 2-dimensional optic scanner is proposed for the realization of medical infrared thermography system. It has been experimentally proven that the intfrared thermography system composed of the proposed optic system has the temperature resolution of 0.1˚c under the spatial resolution of lmrad, the image matrix size of 256 X 240, and tile imaging time of 4 seconds. 30593 T00401030593 ^x In this paper, MIIS (Medical Image Information System) has been designed and implemented using INGRES RDBMS, which is based on a client/server architecture. The implemented system allows users to register and retrieve patient information, medical images and diagnostic reports. It also provides the function to display these information on workstation windows simultaneously by using the designed menu-driven graphic user interface. The medical image compression/decompression techniques are implemented and integrated into the medical image database system for the efficient data storage and the fast access through the network. 30594 T00401030594 ^x In this paper, computerized BEAM was implemented for the space domain analysis of EEG. Trans-formation from temporal summation to two-dimensional mappings is formed by 4 nearest point inter-polaton method. Methods of representation of BEAM are two. One is dot density method which classify brain electrical potential 9 levels by dot density of gray levels and the other is colour method which classify brain electrical 12 levels by red-green colours. In this BEAM, instantaneous change and average energy distribution over any arbitrary time interval of brain electrical activity could be observed and analyzed easily. In the frequency domain, the distribution of energy spectrum of a special band can easily be distinguished normality and abnormality. 30608 T00401030608 ^x Laboratory information system (LIS) is a key tool to manage laboratory data in clinical pathology. Our department has developed an information system for routine hematology using down-sized computer system. We have used an IBM 486 compatible PC with 16MB main memory, 210 MB hard disk drive, 9 RS-232C port and 24 pin dot printer. The operating system and database management system were SCO UNIX and SCO foxbase, respectively. For program development, we used Xbase language provided by SCO foxbase. The C language was used for interface purpose. To make the system use friendly, pull-down menu was used. The system connected to our hospital information system via application program interface (API), so the information related to patient and request details is automatically transmitted to our computer. Our system interfaced with fwd complete blood count analyzers(Sysmex NE-8000 and Coulter STKS) for unidirectional data tansmission from analyzer to computer. The authors suggests that this system based on down-sized computer could provide a progressive approach to total LIS based on local area network, and the implemented system could serve as a model for other hospital's LIS for routine hematology. 30609 T00401030609 ^x To develop an artificial bone substitute that is gradually degraded and replaced by the regenerated natural bone, the authors designed a composite that is consisted of calcium phosphate and collagen. To use as the structural matrix of the composite, collagen was purified from human umbilical cord. The obtained collagen was treated by pepsin to remove telopeptides, and finally, the immune-free atelocollagen was produced: The cross linked atelocollagen was highly resistant to the collagenase induced collagenolysis. The cross linked collagen demonstrated an improved tensile strength. 30618 T00401030618 ^x This paper is a study on the design of adptive filter for QRS complex detection. We propose a simple adaptive algorithm to increase capability of noise cancelation in QRS complex detection with two stage adaptive filter. At the first stage, background noise is removed and at the next stage, only spectrum of QRS complex components is passed. Two adaptive filters can afford to keep track of the changes of both noise and QRS complex. Each adaptive filter consists of prediction error filter and FIR filter The impulse response of FIR filter uses coefficients of prediction error filter. The detection rates for 105 and 108 of MIT/BIH data base were 99.3% and 97.4% respectively. 30619 T00401030619 ^x To develop an artificial bone substitute that is gradually degraded and replaced by the regenerated natural bone, the authors designed and produced a composite that is consisted of calcium phosphate and collagen. Human umbilical cord origin pepsin treated type I atelocollagen was used as the structural matrix, by which sintered or non-sintered carbonate apatite was encapsulated to form an inorganic-organic composite. With cross linking atelocollagen by UV ray irradiation, the resistance to both compressive and tensile strength was increased. Collagen degradation by the collagenase induced collagenolysis was also decreased. 30620 T00401030620 ^x We have developed a monoleaflet polymer valve as an inexpensive and viable alternative, especially for short-term use in the ventricular assist device or total artificial heart. The frame and leaflet of the polymer valve were made from polyurethane, To evaluate the hemodynamic performance of the polymer valve a comparative study of flow dynamics past a polymer valve and a St. Jude Medical prosthetic valve under physiological pulsatile flow conditions in vitro was made. Comparisons between the valves were made on the transvalvular pressure drop, regurgitation volume and maximum valve opening area. The polymer valve showed smaller regurgitation volume and transvalvular pressure drop compared to the mechanical valve at higher heart rate. The results showed that the functional characteristics of the polymer valve compared favorably with those of the mechanical valve at higher heart rate. 30621 T00401030621 ^x Explosive evaporative removal process of biological tissue by absorption of a CW laser has been simulated by using gelatin and a multimode Nd:YAG laser. Because the point of maximun temperature of laser-irradiated gelatin exists below the surface due to surface cooling, evaporation at the boiling temperature is made explosively from below the surface. The important parameters of this process are the conduction loss to laser power absorption (defined as the conduction-to-laser power parameter, Nk), the convection heat transfer at the surface to conduction loss (defined as Bi), dimensionless extinction coefficient (defined as Br.), and dimensionless irradiation time (defined as Fo). Dependence of Fo on Nk and Bi has been observed by experiment, and the results have been compared with the numerical results obtained by solving a 2-dimensional conduction equation. Fo and explosion depth (from the surface to the point of maximun temperature) are increased when Nk and Bi are increased.To find out the minimum laser power for explosive evaporative removal process, steady state analysis has been also made. The limit of Nk to induce evaporative removal, which is proportional to the inverse of the laser power, has been obtained. 30622 T00401030622 ^x N1 and N2 gross neural action potentials were measured from the round window of the guinea pig cochlea at the onset of the acoustic stimuli. N1-N2 audiograms were made by means of regulating stimulant intensities in order to produce constant N1-N2 potentials as criteria for different input tone pip frequencies. The lowest threshold was measured with an input tone pip I5 dB SPL in intensity and 12 KHz in frequency when the animal was in normal physiological condition. The procedure of experimental measurements is explained in detail. This experimental approach is very useful for the investigation of the Cochlear function. Both noN1inear and active functions of the Cochlea can be monitored by N1-N2 audiograms. 30623 T00401030623 ^x In electrical impedance tomography(EIT), we use boundary current and voltage measurements toprovide the information about the cross-sectional distribution of electrical impedance or resistivity. One of the major problems in EIT has been the inaccessibility of internal voltage or current data in finding the internal impedance values. We propose a new image reconstruction method using internal current density data measured by NMR. We obtained a two-dimensional current density distribution within a phantom by processing the real and imaginary MR images from a 4.77 NMR machine. We implemented a resistivity mage reconstruction algorithm using the finite element method and sensitivity matrix. We presented computer simulation results of the mage reconstruction algorithm and furture direction of the research. 30624 T00401030624 ^x A new method of digital image analysis technique for discrimination of cancer cell was presented in this paper. The object image was the Thyroid eland cells image that was diagnosed as normal and abnormal (two types of abnormal: follicular neoplastic cell, and papillary neoplastic cell), respectively. By using the proposed region segmentation algorithm, the cells were segmented into nucleus. The 16 feature parameters were used to calculate the features of each nucleus. A9 a consequence of using dominant feature parameters method proposed in this paper, discrimination rate of 91.11% was obtained for Thyroid Gland cells. 30625 T00401030625 ^x An electrical stimulator was designed to induce locomotion for paraplegic patients caused by central nervous system injury. Optimal stimulus parameters, which can minimize muscle fatigue and can achieve effective muscle contraction were determined in slow and fast muscles in Sprague-Dawley rats. Stimulus patterns of our stimulator were designed to simulate electromyographic activity monitored during locomotion of normal subjects. Muscle types of the lower extremity were classified according to their mechanical property of contraction, which are slow muscle (msoleus m.) and fast muscle (medial gastrocneminus m., rectus femoris m., vastus lateralis m.). Optimal parameters of electrical stimulation for slow muscles were 20 Hz, 0.2 ms square pulse. For fast muscle, 40 Hz, 0.3 ms square pulse was optimal to produce repeated contraction. Higher stimulus intensity was required when synergistic muscles were stimulated simultaneously than when they were stimulated individually. Electrical stimulation for each muscle was designed to generate bipedal locomotion, so that individual muscles alternate contraction and relaxation to simulate stance and swing phases. Portable electrical stimulator with 16 channels built in microprocessor was constructed and applied to paraplegic patients due to lumbar cord injury. The electrical stimulator restored partially gait function in paraplegic patients. 30626 T00401030626 ^x Two-Dimensional modelling of the Cochlear biomechanics is presented in this paper. The Laplace partial differential equation which represents the fluid mechanics of the Cochlea has been transformed into two-dimensional electrical transmission line. The procedure of this transformation is explained in detail. The comparison between one and two dimensional models is also presented. This electrical modelling of the basilar membrane (BM) is clearly useful for the next approach to the further. Development of active elements which are essential in the producing of the sharp tuning of the BM. This paper shows that two-dimension model is qualitatively better than one-dimensional model both in amplitude and phase responses of the BM displacement. The present model is only for frequency response. However because the model is electrical, the two-dimensional transmission line model can be extended to time response without any difficult. 30627 T00401030627 ^x A method has been proposed for the fully automatic detection of left ventricular endocardial boundary in 2D short axis echocardiogram using geometric model. The procedure has the following three distinct stages. First, the initial center is estimated by the initial center estimation algorithm which is applied to decimated image. Second, the center estimation algorithm is applied to original image and then best-fit elliptic model estimation is processed. Third, best-fit boundary is detected by the cost function which is based on the best-fit elliptic model. The proposed method shows effective result without manual intervention by a human operator. 30628 T00401030628 ^x The intelligent trajectory control method that controls moving direction and average velocity for a prosthetic arm is proposed by pattern recognition and force estimations using EMG signals. Also, we propose the real time trajectory planning method which generates continuous accelleration paths using 3 stage linear filters to minimize the impact to human body induced by arm motions and to reduce the muscle fatigue. We use combination of MLP and fuzzy filter for pattern recognition to estimate the direction of a muscle and Hogan's method for the force estimation. EMG signals are acquired by using a amputation simulator and 2 dimensional joystick motion. The simulation results of proposed prosthetic arm control system using the EMf signals show that the arm is effectively followed the desired trajectory depended on estimated force and direction of muscle movements. 30638 T00401030638 ^x A new neural network architecture for the recognition of patterns from images is proposed, which is partially based on the results of physiological studies. The proposed network is composed of multi-layers and the nerve cells in each layer are connected by spatial filters which approximate receptive fields in optic nerve fields. In the proposed method, patterns recognition for complicated images is carried out using global features as well as local features such as lines and end-points. A new generating method of matched filers representing global features is proposed in this network. 30659 T00401030659 ^x An implementation scheme of the magnetic nerve stimulator using a switching mode power supply is proposed. By using a switching mode power supply rather than a conventional linear power supply for charging high voltage capacitors, the weight and size of the magnetic nerve stimulator can be considerably reduced. Maximum output voltage of the developed magnetic nerve stimulator using the switching mode power supply is 3,000 volts and switching time is about 100 msec. Experimental results or human nerve stimulations using the developed stimulator are presented. 30768 T00401030768 ^x In this paper, we describe the design methodology and specifications of the developed module-based bedside monitors for patient monitoring. The bedside monitor consists of a main unit and module cases with various parameter modules. The main unit includes a 12.1" TFT color LCD, a main CPU board, and peripherals such as a module controller, Ethernet LAN card, video card, rotate/push button controller, etc. The main unit can connect at maximum three module cases each of which can accommodate up to 7 parameter modules. They include the modules for electrocardiograph, respiration, invasive blood pressure, noninvasive blood pressure, temperature, and SpO2 with Plethysmograph.

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The Effect of Mutual Trust on Relational Performance in Supplier-Buyer Relationships for Business Services Transactions (재상업복무교역중적매매관계중상호신임대관계적효적영향(在商业服务交易中的买卖关系中相互信任对关系绩效的影响))

  • Noh, Jeon-Pyo
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.19 no.4
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    • pp.32-43
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    • 2009
  • Trust has been studied extensively in psychology, economics, and sociology, and its importance has been emphasized not only in marketing, but also in business disciplines in general. Unlike past relationships between suppliers and buyers, which take considerable advantage of private networks and may involve unethical business practices, partnerships between suppliers and buyers are at the core of success for industrial marketing amid intense global competition in the 21st century. A high level of mutual cooperation occurs through an exchange relationship based on trust, which brings long-term benefits, competitive enhancements, and transaction cost reductions, among other benefits, for both buyers and suppliers. In spite of the important role of trust, existing studies in buy-supply situations overlook the role of trust and do not systematically analyze the effect of trust on relational performance. Consequently, an in-depth study that determines the relation of trust to the relational performance between buyers and suppliers of business services is absolutely needed. Business services in this study, which include those supporting the manufacturing industry, are drawing attention as the economic growth engine for the next generation. The Korean government has selected business services as a strategic area for the development of manufacturing sectors. Since the demands for opening business services markets are becoming fiercer, the competitiveness of the business service industry must be promoted now more than ever. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the mutual trust between buyers and suppliers on relational performance. Specifically, this study proposed a theoretical model of trust-relational performance in the transactions of business services and empirically tested the hypotheses delineated from the framework. The study suggests strategic implications based on research findings. Empirical data were collected via multiple methods, including via telephone, mail, and in-person interviews. Sample companies were knowledge-based companies supplying and purchasing business services in Korea. The present study collected data on a dyadic basis. Each pair of sample companies includes a buying company and its corresponding supplying company. Mutual trust was traced for each pair of companies. This study proposes a model of trust-relational performance of buying-supplying for business services. The model consists of trust and its antecedents and consequences. The trust of buyers is classified into trust toward the supplying company and trust toward salespersons. Viewing trust both at the individual level and the organizational level is based on the research of Doney and Cannon (1997). Normally, buyers are the subject of trust, but this study supposes that suppliers are the subjects. Hence, it uniquely focused on the bilateral perspective of perceived risk. In other words, suppliers, like buyers, are the subject of trust since transactions are normally bilateral. From this point of view, suppliers' trust in buyers is as important as buyers' trust in suppliers. The suppliers' trust is influenced by the extent to which it trusts the buying companies and the buyers. This classification of trust using an individual level and an organization level is based on the suggestion of Doney and Cannon (1997). Trust affects the process of supplier selection, which works in a bilateral manner. Suppliers are actively involved in the supplier selection process, working very closely with buyers. In addition, the process is affected by the extent to which each party trusts its partners. The selection process consists of certain steps: recognition, information search, supplier selection, and performance evaluation. As a result of the process, both buyers and suppliers evaluate the performance and take corrective actions on the basis of such outcomes as tangible, intangible, and/or side effects. The measurement of trust used for the present study was developed on the basis of the studies of Mayer, Davis and Schoorman (1995) and Mayer and Davis (1999). Based on their recommendations, the three dimensions of trust used for the study include ability, benevolence, and integrity. The original questions were adjusted to the context of the transactions of business services. For example, a question such as "He/she has professional capabilities" has been changed to "The salesperson showed professional capabilities while we talked about our products." The measurement used for this study differs from those used in previous studies (Rotter 1967; Sullivan and Peterson 1982; Dwyer and Oh 1987). The measurements of the antecedents and consequences of trust used for this study were developed on the basis of Doney and Cannon (1997). The original questions were adjusted to the context of transactions in business services. In particular, questions were developed for both buyers and suppliers to address the following factors: reputation (integrity, customer care, good-will), market standing (company size, market share, positioning in the industry), willingness to customize (product, process, delivery), information sharing (proprietary information, private information), willingness to maintain relationships, perceived professionalism, authority empowerment, buyer-seller similarity, and contact frequency. As a consequential variable of trust, relational performance was measured. Relational performance is classified into tangible effects, intangible effects, and side effects. Tangible effects include financial performance; intangible effects include improvements in relations, network developing, and internal employee satisfaction; side effects include those not included either in the tangible or intangible effects. Three hundred fifty pairs of companies were contacted, and one hundred five pairs of companies responded. After deleting five company pairs because of incomplete responses, one hundred five pairs of companies were used for data analysis. The response ratio of the companies used for data analysis is 30% (105/350), which is above the average response ratio in industrial marketing research. As for the characteristics of the respondent companies, the majority of the companies operate service businesses for both buyers (85.4%) and suppliers (81.8%). The majority of buyers (76%) deal with consumer goods, while the majority of suppliers (70%) deal with industrial goods. This may imply that buyers process the incoming material, parts, and components to produce the finished consumer goods. As indicated by their report of the length of acquaintance with their partners, suppliers appear to have longer business relationships than do buyers. Hypothesis 1 tested the effects of buyer-supplier characteristics on trust. The salesperson's professionalism (t=2.070, p<0.05) and authority empowerment (t=2.328, p<0.05) positively affected buyers' trust toward suppliers. On the other hand, authority empowerment (t=2.192, p<0.05) positively affected supplier trust toward buyers. For both buyers and suppliers, the degree of authority empowerment plays a crucial role in the maintenance of their trust in each other. Hypothesis 2 tested the effects of buyerseller relational characteristics on trust. Buyers tend to trust suppliers, as suppliers make every effort to contact buyers (t=2.212, p<0.05). This tendency has also been shown to be much stronger for suppliers (t=2.591, p<0.01). On the other hand suppliers trust buyers because suppliers perceive buyers as being similar to themselves (t=2.702, p<0.01). This finding confirmed the results of Crosby, Evans, and Cowles (1990), which reported that suppliers and buyers build relationships through regular meetings, either for business or personal matters. Hypothesis 3 tested the effects of trust on perceived risk. It has been found that for both suppliers and buyers the lower is the trust, the higher is the perceived risk (t=-6.621, p<0.01 for buyers; t=-2.437, p<0.05). Interestingly, this tendency has been shown to be much stronger for buyers than for suppliers. One possible explanation for this higher level of perceived risk is that buyers normally perceive higher risks than do suppliers in transactions involving business services. For this reason, it is necessary for suppliers to implement risk reduction strategies for buyers. Hypothesis 4 tested the effects of trust on information searching. It has been found that for both suppliers and buyers, contrary to expectation, trust depends on their partner's reputation (t=2.929, p<0.01 for buyers; t=2.711, p<0.05 for suppliers). This finding shows that suppliers with good reputations tend to be trusted. Prior experience did not show any significant relationship with trust for either buyers or suppliers. Hypothesis 5 tested the effects of trust on supplier/buyer selection. Unlike buyers, suppliers tend to trust buyers when they think that previous transactions with buyers were important (t=2.913 p<0.01). However, this study did not show any significant relationship between source loyalty and the trust of buyers in suppliers. Hypothesis 6 tested the effects of trust on relational performances. For buyers and suppliers, financial performance reportedly improved when they trusted their partners (t=2.301, p<0.05 for buyers; t=3.692, p<0.01 for suppliers). It is interesting that this tendency was much stronger for suppliers than it was for buyers. Similarly, competitiveness was reported to improve when buyers and suppliers trusted their partners (t=3.563, p<0.01 for buyers; t=3.042, p<0.01 for suppliers). For suppliers, efficiency and productivity were reportedly improved when they trusted buyers (t=2.673, p<0.01). Other performance indices showed insignificant relationships with trust. The findings of this study have some strategic implications. First and most importantly, trust-based transactions are beneficial for both suppliers and buyers. As verified in the study, financial performance can be improved through efforts to build and maintain mutual trust. Similarly, competitiveness can be increased through the same kinds of effort. Second, trust-based transactions can facilitate the reduction of perceived risks inherent in the purchasing situation. This finding has implications for both suppliers and buyers. It is generally believed that buyers perceive higher risks in a highly involved purchasing situation. To reduce risks, previous studies have recommended that suppliers devise risk-reducing tactics. Moving beyond these recommendations, the present study uniquely focused on the bilateral perspective of perceived risk. In other words, suppliers are also susceptible to perceived risks, especially when they supply services that require very technical and sophisticated manipulations and maintenance. Consequently, buyers and suppliers must solve problems together in close collaboration. Hence, mutual trust plays a crucial role in the problem-solving process. Third, as found in this study, the more authority a salesperson has, the more he or she can be trusted. This finding is very important with regard to tactics. Building trust is a long-term assignment; however, when mutual trust has not been developed, suppliers can overcome the problems they encounter by empowering a salesperson with the authority to make certain decisions. This finding applies to suppliers as well.

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